Challenger banks on Uruguayan frontier
The independent is poised to benefit from the new wave of interest in Uruguayan acreage
Uruguay has “all of the technical merits but none of the issues”, says Eytan Uliel, CEO of AIM-listed independent Challenger Energy. The frontier country “has, in a short space of time, become a focal point of the whole business”, Uliel says, adding there is significant potential for “value uplift” there. Challenger was the only applicant when it opted to bid for a Uruguayan licence in May 2020, but the block “was very big, offshore and in shallow water”, with historic, 2D seismic data available. “No one had really paid much attention to it” he adds. It was two years before Uruguay’s president formally approved the licence—which therefore started in August this year—but during that time the
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy






